A switch operated re-positioning reminder for a cellular phone is equipped with a time counter which can actuate an alarm device when a preset time is counted down. A magnet operated reed-in-tube switch is made up of a pair of partially overlapped but separated reeds in a tube, or other types of switches are used in the present invention. The time counter is a simple CPU contained program and a user can set up the prolonged time span as desired for the time counter. The alarm is a buzz, ring or speaker that can produce alarm sound. In the first embodiment, a PC board including the magnet operated reed-in-tube switch, the CPU, the buzz and a battery can be housed in a rather thin shelter case wherein a magnet is attached to a cellular phone or other expensive articles and the shelter case is fixed to the interior of a cellular phone case. In another embodiment, the magnet is fixed to a proper position of a cellular phone case, and the time counter program is merged with a conventional cellular phone circuit and the original ring system for the cellular phone is adopted as an alarm whereby as long as a cellular phone in either case is not repositioned in a cellular phone case in a pre-set time, the alarm device fixed in either the shelter case or the cellular phone will be actuated to alarm to remind a user not to leave his or her cellular phone behind.
Cellular phones have been regarded as the most important and influential personal communication equipment ever developed in the history of mankind. Men living in modern societies all over the world have enjoyed the convenience brought by the cellular phones in daily life but they are always worried about loss of the cellular phones and other people might take advantage of their lost cellular phones and make illegal phone calls in one aspect and are afraid that some other people might even make use such illegally obtained cellular phones to conduct criminal acts, causing annoying and unnecessary troubles for them in another aspect.
Trying to solve such kind a problem, many prior art techniques have been developed and applied to such precious cellular phones, note books or golf bags to remind those absent-minded people not to leave their personal objects behind when they left a place. At present, the most popular reminder devices make use of a major and minor unit that are separately mounted to a person and to a personal article. As long as the major and minor units are separated away from each other at such a distance that the signals generated by one of the units can not be received by the other, an alarm sound will be produced. There are many disadvantages in such wireless electronic reminder devices to be overcome; for example, the bulky size of the device can not be minimized, the cost of production is relatively too high and the frequency interference can sometimes cause false operations or non-operations. The most problematic technique to be overcome is the power consumption; in real practice, a battery can only sustain several weeks in such wireless electronic reminder devices. It is not environment friendly and economic at all in practical use.
In use of the device of the present invention, for a male user, a thin magnet plate is attached to the back of a cellular phone and the other electronic parts are housed in a case that is fixed inside a cellular phone pocket. As the cellular phone is put into the cellular phone pocket, the magnet plate on the phone will make the magnet operated reed-in-tube switch electrically connected and the electronic parts will not be actuated to work. When the cellular phone is taken out of the pocket, the magnetic force will disappear from the pocket, causing the reed-in-tube switch to be disconnected. Accordingly, the CPU of the reminder will be actuated to count down. In general, a phone call can be generally done in average in 3 minutes, so the CPU is set to function in 3 minutes. When the preset time is completely counted down, a reminding alarm is generated to remind a person to put the cellular phone back into the phone pocket to terminate the alarm sound. Thereby the cellular phone will not be placed randomly but only in the phone pocket to prevent the same from being lost.